FORMER Environment and Public Services president Robin Hacquoil launched an attack on Senator Ted Vibert during the final verbal evidence given to the committee of inquiry into the awarding of the bus contract to Connex.

Mr Hacquoil voluntarily returned to the witness stand on Tuesday because he was unhappy at evidence given by the Senator at a previous hearing.

He said that the Senator had made ‘unsubstantiated attacks on the integrity and honesty of the five members of the committee’ during his time as president.

He added that the Senator had also made ‘extremely sad and unforgivable’ attacks on public servants during his testimony.

He had never had cause to doubt the ‘competency, honesty and integrity’ of senior Public Services department officers during his tenure as both vice-president and president of the committee.

He criticised the Senator for giving inaccurate information and said that he did not believe claims the Senator made that he could accurately recall facts after a considerable period of time.

He also said that comments attributed to him by Senator Dick Shenton in evidence submitted to the inquiry were ‘completely untrue’.

Mr Hacquoil disputed the record of events given by the Senator of a meeting held between the two men on a Sunday in August 2001 when the then Mr Shenton was acting as a mediator as the result of a strike by bus drivers.

He said that Senator Shenton was wrong when he gave evidence that Deputy Maurice Dubras was at the meeting.

Mr Hacquoil said that Deputy Dubras was not a committee member at the time.

The final witness to give evidence was Deputy Jackie Hilton.

She too had volunteered to take the stand in response to evidence given by Senator Vibert.

She disputed the accuracy of comments attributed to her by Senator Vibert at meetings between the two of them, held at de Gruchy’s restaurant, about the controversial £72 a week shift allowance agreed between former bus operator JerseyBus and the union that represents drivers.

She said that the Senator was absolutely adamant that the officers of the Public Services department were aware of the agreement in February 2002.

She had felt at the time that she was being given one side of the story and wanted to get the department’s side before reaching any conclusion.

However, in Senator Vibert’s evidence he submitted that the Deputy had told him that ‘the people from JerseyBus could not be trusted’.

‘I do not believe that I would have said that people from JerseyBus could not be trusted.

I agree that I said that it had been difficult to get information from JerseyBus,’ she told the inquiry.

Inquiry president Hugh Shepheard said that the inquiry members would now work on preparing a draft report during May.

He said that anybody who was criticised by the committee would be sent copies of the draft and allowed to make submissions prior to the inquiry considering the final text.